This is the story of Manzi and Maui, my Congo African Grey parrots. Eventually, Manzi is going to become a famous flighted parrot, so check out his blog. I tell about day to day activities, continual trick training and about the quest to become a free flighted parrot. Maui is the newest addition and I also tell about their acclimation to each other and techniques to improve their relationship.

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Maui’s egg laying is beginning to worry me. She is now on her 22th egg and I can feel that she has a 23st on the way. I did not take her last one away as I thought that maybe if she sits on them she will stop laying. The problem with that is that when she has an egg to protect, she does too good of a job. She won’t let Manzi get anywhere close to her cage area. Just to show him who is boss, she ran to his cage and chased him out. Manzi wasn’t quite fast enough, so Maui caught his wing with her foot and began biting at him. I heard the scurrying followed by really loud shrieks from Manzi, so I quickly put an end to that. Manzi stays as far away from her as possible now and keeps an eye on her in case she decides to teach him any more lessons.

Yesterday, a friend who usually comes over about once per week, stopped by. Maui usually follows this friend around, but doesn’t threaten or allow any scratching. It is as though she is still deciding whether to make friend or foe. Anyway, yesterday when the friend was over, Maui left her egg and stayed on top of her cage the entire time. She didn’t follow the friend around, but she didn’t sit on her egg either. I thought maybe she gave up on the egg, but as soon as the friend left she was back to sitting on the egg. It seems she is very sensitive to visitors. I noticed this before, but I didn’t think she would be like this with someone who comes over on a regular basis.

I am not sure what to do about Maui’s nesting. As soon as I let her out of her cage, she goes for the cabinet (well, while not sitting on eggs) and digs around, nesting, for hours until she is hungry. After a quick snack, she runs back to the cabinet. If I keep the cabinet closed, she’ll chew on it trying to open it up. If I block off the cabinet, she’ll find somewhere else. She desperately wants to nest, sit on an egg and raise it, but just as desperately she wants to keep Manzi away from her. She doesn’t realize that Manzi, or any male African grey, is a must in the procreation arena. To stop her from nesting, I can keep Maui locked up in her cage, but I really don’t like this option. I’m still not sure what to do about this dilemma.

I got a new camera and tomorrow am going to have it set up. Hopefully it will be on the web shortly after that.